The portrait of Dora

Dora is the pseudonym given by Sigmund Freud to a patient who became a famous case study of psychoanalysis. In an attempt of critical response to Freud’s case study, the case of Dora is reinterpreted by french writer and feminist Hélène Cixous as an act of an abused woman to revolt against male power over women’s body and language in the early 1900’s Vienna. Based on that, when it has come to design a poster for the theatrical play “The portrait of Dora”, I have imagined the girl as a half person, meaning that she is still a young woman, and yet somehow she has already been abused, while the other half of the poster remains black, as to remark that Dora has secrets. The hand of the girl is placed between the figure and the empty space, touching the dark, has to symbolize that she is unveiling herself to the spectators of the play.